“As long as citizens’ conventions are black boxes, they lack legitimacy”
The French Citizens' Convention on the End of Life recently ended. Make.org introduced a new AI tool to make its proceedings and outcome more accessible. We talked to Hélène Landemore, who served on the Convention's governance committee, and David Mas, head of AI for mak
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How TrollWall Tackles Online Hate with AI
Online hate and disinformation have significantly clouded public discourse, polarising conversations and marginalising voices, particularly those of women and vulnerable groups. Through cutting-edge AI, TrollWall moderates online debates and comments, aiming to mitigate the harmful effects of online hate and foster inclusivity.
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How Belgium is Giving Citizens a Say on AI
Within the scope of its ongoing Presidency of the European Council, Belgium has convened a citizens’ assembly on AI, with the aim of giving a representative group of citizens a say. The organisers hope it will be just one of many such ventures in future.
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AI in Europe: The Role of Public Spending
Artificial Intelligence heavily impacts our economy Artificial intelligence plays an increasingly important role in our lives and economy, which has been further accelerated by the massive deployment of Generative AI (ChatGPT and others). Studies all over the globe indicate that GenAI alone could add up between 5% and 9% to global GDP across industries. Not […]
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“A Must for Every City”: Open Data in Košice
Košice is a city of around 230,000 people in Eastern Slovakia. To harness the potential of data to improve services within the city, they launched Košice 2.0 – a transformative journey towards a smart, responsive city. We spoke to Michal Hladký, Director of Creative Industry Košice.
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Loopholes in European AI Regulation
Algorithm Watch is part of a broad coalition of civil society actors who have signed an open letter asking policymakers not to leave big loopholes in the Council of Europe's Convention on AI. We talked to Angela Müller about the Convention, as well as the EU’s recent AI Act.
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How Italy’s Government is Using AI
Governments around the world are already using AI in their daily work – but the rollout already varies drastically from country to country, depending on a whole host of factors. We take a look at the example of Italy, examining their current uses of AI, from public service chatbots and catching tax evaders to developing new policies, and consider some of the challenges they have faced.
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Meta Experiments With Public Consultation on AI
In October 2023, Meta hosted a “Community Forum on Generative AI.” The online event gave randomly selected members of the public the chance to share their views on the principles governing the use of AI chatbots. It is one of the first cases of a private company using established deliberative democracy methods to consult the public, raising key questions about accountability. Democracy Technologies was invited to observe the event.
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AI and the Future of Participation
One of the many highlights at DecidimFest 2023 was Xabier E. Barandiaran’s talk on Artificial and collective intelligence. We sat down with him at the festival to talk to him about why human intelligence has always been artificial and collective, why open source AI shouldn’t be underestimated, and his idea of “artificial democratic life.”
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The Race to Democratise AI
Over the last year, several major AI developers, including Meta and OpenAI, have started taking an interest in deliberative democracy tools. The aim: to collect public inputs on the regulation of AI. We take stock of the developments so far – and ask what it means for the field as a whole.
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Intelligence: Artificial, Collective, or Otherwise. Decidim Fest 2023
This year’s Decidim Fest took place as part of Barcelona’s European Capital of Democracy programme year. Members of the Meta Decidim community converged on the Canódrom to talk about the topic “Democracy, Technology and Artificial Collective Intelligence.” Read some of the highlights here.
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AI in Digital Citizens’ Participation – Where Do We Stand?
Webinar Recap | On 10 August, democracy-technologies.org hosted the webinar “AI in Digital Citizens Participation – Where do we Stand?” Robert Bjarnason (Citizens Foundation), Bianca Lüders (Agency for Geoinformation and Surveying, City of Hamburg) and Eva Mayer (CitizenLab) joined us to talk about how they are integrating AI into their platforms.
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Building Consensus on Complex Issues
John Richardson is an Ashoka fellow, a lawyer, a mathematician and the founder of Ethelo, an online platform designed to help groups reach consensus. We spoke about the nature of consensus building, the value of often unexplored options and the possibility of a shared protocol, bringing together different democratic tools.
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Deep Fakes, Disinformation and Democratic Elections
Artificial Intelligence's ever-increasing sophistication (generative AI in particular) and the ability to create fake yet authentic-looking media is taking its toll on already strained electoral processes. Here’s a look at the role of disinformation and ‘deep fake’ content in a couple of elections. One recent. And one on the horizon.
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Eight Questions to Ask Before Using AI in Citizen Participation
AI hype has arrived in the realm of digital citizen participation. For many, it’s an exciting moment, with several potential applications already emerging. But the quick uptake of AI also raises questions about the potential risks the technology brings with it. What questions should you ask before adopting the technology in participation projects?
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